Literature Review 2

Challenging The Boy Code in Dance Education - Doug Risner

Doug Risner (2007): Rehearsing masculinity: challenging the ‘boy code’ in dance education, Research in Dance Education, 8:2, 139-153 

This article intends to explore dance education through the experiences of boys and young males. A strong theme that seems to be consistent in this article is male dancers identifying their masculinity and challenging homophobia that seems to be aimed towards males in dance.

“While dance in many cultures has been, and continues to be viewed as an appropriate ‘male’ activity, the Western European cultural paradigm situates dance as primarily a ‘female’ art form, and has done so since the sixteenth century (Hasbrook, 1993)”

Why is western culture so instant of dance being an activity for females and not males? Girls begin classes as young as age 3 when they are taken to their first ballet class. However it seems to be rare for parents to take their young boy along to their first dance class at such a young age. Many boys from my dance school are brought along to classes because they have simply asked their parent if they can be brought along, only occasionally a parent will bring their son to a class at their own will. 

Are parents to blame for boys being so against dance? Is this a social stigma that the parents have grown up with themselves and are passing along to their children? 

A section of the article that stood out for me was a study of 33 boys (Aged 12-18 years) who had enrolled in a summer intensive dance training program. The results of the study showed significant themes between the boys. The following aspects of social isolation among the subjects was something that i myself had experienced growing up.

a lack of same-gender peers/teachers in the dance environment 

I seemed to spend most of my teens growing up in dance classes full of girls and the few boys that were in dance classes with me i seemed to be in competition with. All my teachers for many years were female and i was not given access to male teacher until i was at dance college. 

in some cases, having family members who did not support or discouraged their
desire to dance 

My family were very supportive of my dancing and i was very lucky to attend classes with both my sister and younger brother. My mother was always encouraging me to attend lessons when i was feeling down and would support me with anything i needed. However even though my father didn’t disapprove of my dancing, it was a rare occasion when he actually even saw me dance. Dancing was usually a joke or something that was seen as a ‘hobby.’ Not something that could be taken seriously as a career.

a need to keep their dance life a secret from academic peers; fear of or actual teasing and harassment by peers 

Dancing for me was the biggest secret i could have. Only a few friends at school knew that i actually danced and had a big passion for it. Even though i was attending classes 3/4 times a week and competitions at weekends, i would usually lie and tell my peers different stories to stop them guessing i was dancing. I was mostly afraid of being teased or talked about and was constantly covering my back. Once i reached my final year in school, i began opening up more about my dance. A few people had laughed and called me names, but it was actually a lot simpler than i thought. Maybe i was panicing too much? 

Conclusion

This article was produced in 2007 and i’m wondering weather some of these issues are still present in schools. It would be interesting to do a similar survey to compare weather times have changed and if social stigma towards male dancers is still present. Having access to my own male pupils, i can find out weather they have the same issues i had? Are they hiding a secret like i did?